"Horikita-san, how were your entrance exam scores?" Shimizu Akira changed the subject, getting to the main point.
Horikita Suzune slightly raised her chin, her tone carrying undeniable confidence. "Conservatively, top five in the entire grade."
"Oh?" Shimizu Akira raised an eyebrow.
It was unlikely that Horikita Suzune would lie.
This answer made him even more certain. The class division criteria were definitely not based purely on academic performance.
If that was the case, by the same reasoning, the school's evaluation system for distributing points was probably much more complex than it appeared on the surface.
"What do you think about this class division system?" Shimizu Akira suddenly asked a seemingly casual question.
Horikita Suzune paused slightly, her fingertips lightly tapping the table. "It's nothing more than random assignment."
Her gaze unconsciously swept across the classroom. Given Shimizu Akira's intelligence, his grades were clearly no less than hers, not to mention outstanding students like Hirata Yosuke in the class.
In Horikita's perception, Class D was quite strong.
"Horikita-san," Shimizu Akira suddenly asked, "besides me and Ayanokoji-san over there, have you really spoken to anyone else these past two days? Like classmates from Class B, Class C, or even Class A?"
His gaze pointedly swept across the classroom, finally landing on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nearby.
Surprisingly, this reserved student actually nodded somewhat awkwardly in their direction.
Shimizu Akira couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. In his impression, this classmate shouldn't be the shy type.
However, out of politeness, he still returned a friendly nod.
Ayanokoji's tone carried a subtle sense of detachment. "Besides that question yesterday, Horikita-san and I have barely spoken."
Horikita Suzune's answer was crisp and direct, without the slightest hesitation. "I'm not very interested in making friends."
Shimizu Akira almost blurted out the rest of her sentence for her—"If any of you are aliens, time travelers, or espers, feel free to come find me." The thought made him laugh to himself. After all, the ice-cold girl in front of him looked nothing like the vibrant Haruhi Suzumiya.
'But then again...'
No matter how much one disliked socializing, an ordinary high school student should at least have one or two friends they could talk to.
Being completely solitary like this was simply too unusual.
"Doesn't that mean you've only spoken to me these past two days?" Shimizu Akira suddenly realized this fact, a hint of surprise unconsciously creeping into his tone.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's gaze flickered between the two of them, and he said expressionlessly, "Horikita-san seemed quite engaged when talking to Shimizu-san."
Horikita Suzune immediately frowned and retorted coldly, "Engaged? Don't misunderstand. It's just necessary communication since we happened to be assigned to the same class and desk."
Shimizu Akira now clearly realized a fatal flaw in Horikita Suzune—her almost paranoid social isolation, which severely affected her judgment.
'So that's how it is.'
Horikita Suzune certainly possessed exceptional intelligence, but her habit of completely isolating herself in her own world meant she couldn't even establish the most basic campus information network.
Just like now, her understanding of the class assignment system was still at the superficial level of "random distribution," a judgment entirely based on her isolated assumptions.
'She's only spoken to me for two days. No wonder.'
Shimizu Akira couldn't help but recall how he'd managed to extract the truth about the class assignment rules from the homeroom teacher.
No matter how smart a person is, it's impossible to obtain all key information in a completely isolated state.
Horikita Suzune was like a solitary island, rich in resources, but gradually falling into a difficult situation due to being cut off from the mainland.
Shimizu Akira shook his head slightly, his tone calm yet undeniable. "You guessed wrong. It's not random."
"What do you—" Horikita Suzune instinctively retorted, but stopped short when she saw his expression.
There was no hint of jest in those eyes, only the certainty of stating a fact.
She suddenly realized that this person in front of her had no motive to deceive her.
Silence spread between the two.
Shimizu Akira watched Horikita, who was deep in thought. He admired the girl's beauty and stubbornness, but information was never a free lunch.
"If you really can't figure it out, you can buy it from me with points." Shimizu Akira leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice to a volume only they could hear. "I can give you a twenty percent discount, guaranteed to be worth it."
"No need!" Horikita Suzune refused almost reflexively, her voice filled with undeniable resolve. "I can figure it out myself."
This proud deskmate had absolute confidence in her intelligence.
'This kind of information usually requires extensive social interaction to get clues, and with Horikita's unapproachable personality...'
Shimizu Akira couldn't help but imagine her trying to inquire about information from upperclassmen. Just her cold attitude would be enough to make people retreat.
If social means were impossible, even he himself would find it difficult to think of other ways to obtain hidden rules.
Morning classes began as scheduled.
Shimizu Akira opened his brand-new textbook, his fingertip gently tracing the pages.
Although his grades in his previous life were decent, the Japanese teaching system was, after all, a different matter.
Mathematics and English were fine, as formulas and grammar were universal.
But when the Japanese Language teacher started explaining classical grammar, his brows furrowed unconsciously.
"In this passage from 'The Pillow Book,' Sei Shonagon used a special rhetorical device..."
The teacher's voice on the podium gradually faded into a blurry background.
Shimizu Akira stared at the dense annotations in the textbook, feeling like every character was dancing before his eyes.
He unconsciously rubbed his temple, a subtle movement that didn't escape his neighbor's gaze.
"Heh~"
'Is she laughing at me?'
When the lunch break bell rang, the classroom immediately became lively.
"Want to go to the cafeteria together?" A sunny and handsome boy stood in the middle of the aisle, smiling as he extended an invitation.
Shimizu Akira recognized him at a glance as Hirata Yosuke, a central figure in Class D. This information had been told to him personally by Ike Kanji yesterday.
"Sure! Hirata-kun, let's go together!" Several boys immediately responded enthusiastically.
'Speaking of which, there's also a group of gyaru girls in the class, led by Karuizawa Kei, who are quite noticeable.'
Shimizu Akira searched through his memory fragments, his gaze unconsciously sweeping to the other side of the classroom.